Kansas

That Lexus is a top of the line Toyota is nothing to be ashamed of. I assume everybody knows that Lexus vehicles were sold as Toyotas in their home country of Japan for about sixteen years and that Japanese market Toyota/Lexus vehicles have only recently been rebranded as "Lexus" as new models have been introduced.

It has not mattered to us that our Lexus and Toyota branded vehicles have shared some of the same parts as long as our cars performed well and Toyota continued to be profitable -- my wife and I own ADRs (shares/stock) in Toyota which produces Lexus, Scion and a few other nameplates not sold in the U.S.

I detect that Toyota is becoming a little more agressive in putting popular technology on their vehicles -- including their Lexus branded vehicles. In today's increasingly competitive market, Toyota can not affort to lag behind.

Indio

iTrader: (1)

Ford has been out front in many ways, Navigator was first full size suv with independent rear suspension with power folding seats flat into the floor, power running boards and liftgate (2003) six speed tranny since 05, GM trucks still have rear seats that have to be removed and the LX570 still uses those silly side folding seats.

pagemaster

IMO this is because there is a lack of competition in the uber high end full size SUVs. The only vehicle that really competes at this level is the Range Rover which does have IRS but does not include 3rd row seating. Third row seating is the last priority on the minds of LX50 buyers and Toyota will always spin off that it is because of off roading that it lacks IRS.

Where most of the competition has IRS the GX470 really suffers in comparison.

LexFather

Uhh the GX 470 won 4x4 of the year not one but TWO years in a row.

spwolf

yes, LX should have foldable 3rd seat, so you would have to have an crane to put something into the back...

:-).

spwolf

and? does BMW offer that?

Indio

iTrader: (1)

You don't consider Navigator and QX56 competition for the LX570? They both have irs and foldable flat third row.

tex2670

So Lexus should just take the attitude that they don't need to be on the cutting edge of tech features just because they are Lexus??

Isn't that what the Germans have done? Some German cars still dont have a touch screen nav.

tex2670

Which assumes that Toyota can't have a high quality interior AND lots of gadgets, which is just silly.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

All I know is when I bought my 2000 2GS in late 1999, I felt it was totally state of the art in interior conveniences with tons of nice features, the touchscreen nav, etc. It did lack a couple of things over my previous Legend, like the heated seats didn't have adjustable temp, I don't think the steering wheel had audio controls, etc.

The 3GS does have more features (adjustable suspension - although is that available on the GS350?, interior ambient LED lighting, push to start, adaptive headlights I think?, etc.), but it just doesn't seem as big a step up as the 2GS was, plus things are moving fast in the market and Lexus needs to keep up at least. I've joked a lot about the cassette player in the 3GS, but really, it's got to go and replace the head unit with one with a hard drive and USB port.

bad co

nope the s class
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaiTFkHrMNE

Threxx

I think the excuse the Lexus doesn't want to put gadgets in that will be out of date in 2-3 years is laughable and an insult to the intelligent of their consumers.

#1- USB architecture isn't going ANYWHERE... it has been around for over a decade and still remains 100% backward compatible. USB 3.0 will be out soon enough but 1.0 and 2.0 will still work just find with it.

#2- The only thing that might be required of Lexus is software updates for their nav/media systems. Too bad, so sad Lexus... this is the future... cars will require software updates. Hell they already require software updates. Just unify all of your media systems to where you can release one unified update to dealers (or even via satellite to the cars directly!) for all Lexus models, or at least all nav/media systems of the same generation.

Nobody uses tape and not very many use CD anymore so the fact that Lexus is still making things like XM/Sirius/USB a port installed option is ridiculous.

iKenn

iTrader: (1)

I wish we got live traffic updates and weather updates like acura.